Chapter XVII

District Redistribution Officer

 

The District Redistribution Office of the Eighth Navel District was established by the Commandant on 1 March 1945, in compliance with a letter from the Chief of Naval Operations directing that such offices be established in all Naval Districts and River Commands where they were not already in existence.1 This letter stated that the function of the office was "to disseminate information concerning available excess and to bring together the various parties interested in procuring material with those parties considered to be sources of supply." Together with enclosures, the letter set forth directions as to how the office was to be operated, with technical details on the preparation and publication of lists and catalogs.

The establishment of the office in the Eighth Naval District was, to a large extent, a centralizing of agencies already present. The Bureau of Ships, the Bureau of Personnel, the Bureau of Yards and Docks, and the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery already each had a representative in the district reporting on surplus material and aiding in its transfer to activities that needed it. The officer who had been performing this function for the Bureau of Yards and Docks had been stationed at the Advance Base Depot, in Gulfport, where he had had additional duties. The Bureau of Ships representative had had five months of such duty attached to the Industrial Manager's office. The Bureau

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of Personnel representative had had six months of the duty under the Director of Training. The agent of Bureau of Medicine and Surgery was a chief warrant pharmacist stationed at the Naval Medical Supply Storehouse, New Orleans; his assignment to the staff of the District Redistribution Office was on the basis of temporary additional duty.

With the establishment of the district office, the officer representing the Bureau of Ships also began handling the surplus material of the Bureau of Aeronautics, The Bureau of Ordnance, the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts, the Marine Corps, and the Coast Guard, all of which organizations had comparatively few items. In August 1945 the Bureau of Personnel assigned a second officer to the staff of the District Redistribution Officer for work as a "field agent" in connection with educational and training activities.

The District Redistribution Office published and distributed monthly catalogs listing excess material reported by district activities. If any activity desired material listed, it notified the District Redistribution Office. If the material was not requested within fifty days after the catalog had been published, the activity with the surplus got in touch with a Material Redistribution and Disposal Office (the three offices that activities of this district were concerned with were in Houston, New Orleans, and Atlanta). Such an office had authority to sell material that was not valued at more than three hundred dollars. It could sell material worth more than that only when directed to do so by the Navy Material Redistribution and Disposal Administration, of which it was a subsidiary. Any material

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which the Navy Could not use at the time but wished to hold for future needs was transferred to a Material Redistribution Center, one of which was in Corpus Christi. Transportation of surplus material was charged to Transportation of Things, Navy.

The District Redistribution Office kept on hand catalogs of surplus material issued for other Naval districts and by such agencies as the Army, the Department of Commerce, and the Treasury Department. The staff examined these catalogs, taking note of material listed in them that night be used by activities in the Eighth Naval District, and then informed the activities that might be benefited.

As to the distribution of its own catalogs, a good many were at first mailed to addressees other than activities of the Eighth Naval District. As of August 1945 the various catalogs were sent to the number of addressees indicated below:

Catalogs Number of
Addressees
All combined 72
Bureau of Yards and Docks 748
Bureau of Ships and Bureau of Supplies and Accounts combined 746
Bureau of Personnel 177
Bureau of Medicine and Surgery 158
Bureau of Aeronautics 83
Coast Guard 56

Certain catalogs were also mailed to seventy addressees (hospitals in the main) which could make use of some of the material for occupational therapy. The Office of Procurement and Material, however, directed that the plan for disseminating information be modified. Beginning with the September 1945 issues, the district catalogs were published

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in a simpler form, classified according to types of material rather than according to cognizant Bureaus, and the mailing list was restricted to district activities.

The District Redistribution Office tried to anticipate surpluses and needs of material. It made arrangements, for instance, with some V-12 units about to be disestablished for the transfer of certain equipment to institutions where Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps were to be introduced. It did important work in connection with setting up the separation centers. In short, during its brief existence it proved a valuable and economical logistics agency.

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FOOTNOTES

1. CNO ltr., Ser. 516-07, dtd. 8 Jan. 1945.

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